


Like the Deserts Miss the Rain

by Bone_Apple_Teeth (Teethteethteethteethteethteethteeth)



Category: The Weight of the Stars - K. Ancrum
Genre: F/F, Ficlet, just a little scene I’d like to expand more on in the future, postcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28181571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teethteethteethteethteethteethteeth/pseuds/Bone_Apple_Teeth
Summary: The lovers’ return to Earth.
Relationships: Ryann Bird/Alexandria Macallough
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	Like the Deserts Miss the Rain

In the roughly five years since Alexandria Macallough stepped onto Ryann Bird’s spacecraft and swept her off her feet, the two of them have had plenty time to reconnect with each other. One thousand, nine hundred fifteen days, exactly, to catch each other up on everything that’s happened since Ryann left the world behind, and since Alexandria’s world stopped spinning. 

_An exaggeration, really_ , Alexandria corrects herself later. _It just felt like everything stopped, at first. But the sun kept rising, and after a while, it didn’t hurt so much_. 

Ryann had smiled, hadn’t asked to change the subject the way she would have earlier in their journey home. Neither woman notices the subtle growth, not consciously, as the two of them learn to live with each other again. 

And for once, it’s a beautiful thing, this solitude.

* * *

1,915 days, and Alexandria’s filled Ryann in on everything she’d missed out on, down on Earth. But even Alexandria’s nearly ten years behind, and as their return capsule hits the water, as the SCOUT boat retrieves them and pulls them back to land, as they take their first steps down on solid ground, they each separately have the sense that they’ve landed on an alien planet, a funhouse mirror of the lives they’d led before. 

Nonetheless, it’s still their family that meets them at the gate. 

It’s Charlie they see first, as old as Ryann was when she’d left, and still holding anxiously onto James’ hand, nervous to meet the aunt he doesn’t remember, and the one who’d left when he was twelve. Ryann’s heart skips a beat when she realizes he’s wearing the same old leather jacket she’d left with Alexandria all those years ago. 

He waves, smile shy, and without missing a beat, Alexandria and Ryann are sprinting the rest of the way home, wrapping him and all their friends up in a hug that spans eons and countless miles of stardust.


End file.
